One of my favorite things to bake at home are doughnuts. “Bake?” you might say. Yes, doughnuts are traditionally fried, but if you like soft, pillowy doughnuts and don’t like cleaning up grease or oil splatters, baked doughnuts are a great alternative. Plus, homemade fried doughnuts don’t taste as good as the ones you get at the store (in my humble opinion).

These gingerbread baked doughnuts are a lot like apple cider doughnuts you would eat in the fall, minus apple cider and with a lot of molasses and ginger (two key ingredients in gingerbread). They are sweet and full of warming spices. They are delicious alone, but they’re even better with a cup of coffee.

A key part of making baked doughnuts is getting a good doughnut pan, and then spraying it within an inch of its life. No one (including me) likes to take a pan of doughnuts out of the oven and proceed to spend an hour trying to dig them out with a butter knife. The trick to avoiding this is lots of cooking spray, which you should apply liberally to the pans before you fill them with batter.

Also, I would highly recommend using a piping bag and tip to get the batter into the doughnut pan cavities. You can use a spoon or two, but it’s so much easier and less messy to use a piping bag. After you fill the piping bag with batter, point the tip toward the bottom of the cavity with one hand and use the other to squeeze the batter into the pan until the cavity is almost full. Make a circle with the hand that is pointing the bag (essentially tracing the circle of the doughnut cavity).

After the doughnuts come out of the oven, let them cool a little in the pan before removing them and letting them cool more until you can handle them with your bare hands. Then, quickly dip each side in a bowl of melted butter and again in the bowl with a cinnamon, ginger, sugar mixture.

The doughnuts taste best the day they’re made (ideally right after you dip them in butter and sugar), but they’ll also taste good the next day if you store them in an airtight container.

Here’s a song to get you started on your gingerbread doughnuts.

Gingerbread Doughnuts

Ingredients

for the doughnuts:
1 1/4 cup (156 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground allspice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup (50 g) packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
3 Tbsp whole milk Greek yogurt

for the topping:
1/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally spray two 6-cavity doughnut pans and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, ground spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and molasses until combined (about one minute). Whisk in the egg until combined, then whisk in the whole milk and Greek yogurt until the liquid ingredients are thoroughly combined. Use a spatula if you need to to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.

Use a spatula to mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing only until just combined and you can’t see any traces of flour. Do not overmix. Use a piping bag or spoons to fill the prepared doughnuts pans with batter. Tap each pan lightly on the counter to make sure the batter is evenly distributed.

Bake the doughnuts for about 13 minutes, or until the tops lightly spring back to the touch. Remove the pans from the oven and allow the doughnuts to cool slightly before removing them to cool further on a wire wrack.

In the meantime, melt the butter for the topping in a small saucepan on medium low heat, and then pour it into a shallow bowl to cool slightly. Whisk together the sugar with the ground cinnamon and ginger. When the doughnuts are still warm but cool enough to handle, dip each side in the melted butter and then repeat the process in the sugar-spice mixture. Repeat until you’ve coated all the doughnuts. Enjoy!